Now, I could probably write something close to a novel by now. But I'll settle for the bare minimum, you'll just have to approach me personally if you want the full dish..... Scratch that, this has turned pretty extensive, mainly so that I can keep tabs of what I have done and should be doing in the future!
Tuesday afternoon finished off unceremoniously, I don't think there was too much. It seems so long ago! Caught up with Sculley in the service park. Hung out with Ole later on.
Wednesday was a little bit annoying, I went to class in the morning only to find that the lecturer from America wasn't really talking about anything relevant to class or anything that interests me personally.
In the afternoon I headed out to the Creek. Had my photo taken for the Waikato Times, which in the process enabled me to meet Tom, the Subaru publicity guy. It was cool to talk Subaru's for a while and the finer details such as pink/red STi stickers and small dents in Atko's back bumper.
Got to interview Morrie Chandler later on, was interesting and very diplomatic... I'm still not really sure what to think about it all. But it will be good for future analysis, as I recorded theinterview. So I will come back to it.
Wednesday afternoon after the interview with Morrie was kind of interesting. Went with Geoff Ridder to the Ford Team drinks mixer thing. It's basically a chance for the team to show off their drivers to the media, serve wine and nibbles and get everyone hobb-knobbing. Felt very chicken kiwi like, us kiwis seemingly grouping together for comfort. Alan McDonald, with whom I am traveling to Malaysia in a month and a bit, launched on me the idea of a lead up article on what the kiwi teams are doing in preparation to going over to Singapore and so I was introduced to the Malleys. Headed home and decided to make it an early night, was shocked to have Mikko text me, pretty much telling me off for not chatting to him!
Thursday started with Shakedown, I got out to the Creek at about 8am and then made my way over to the end of the Shakedown stage to take some photos and see what was all going on. We literally had one of the best days for weather that the Waikato has seen in at least a couple of months. This was great for photos. I caught up with Jason (other kiwi from rallystuff.net site) and walked around the service park.
Also caught up with Mikko finally, strange thing really, to know him and yet... It was weird to have him come over and talk to me and have people take photos. But, we escaped into the Ford tent and had a bit of a catch-up, me feeling like a bit of a possum caught in the lights and being distracted by everything going on around at the same time. One of the things that we talked about was football, funnily enough, along with other generic catch-up talk. Jason snapped a couple of shots of Mikko and I chatting.
Afternoon started off with a mixer thing at Suzuki WRT, much like the Ford one, just less swankier (sorry Suzuki!), it was based in the service park, so swankiness is automatically limited really. Then the pre-event press conference, which was a bit of a non-event for me this year because the rally decided to buy, yes buy, the services of a transcriber. Whereas last year I was involved in the transcription, but, as it turns out it was okay because Kim and I had to make our way into town for the driver's signing session and the ceremonial start.
Driver's signing was an awesome different experience. I found myself somewhat in charge of the biggest part of it. The teams were split into three places on both sides of Hood Street, I had the big one outside Cullens and there were two more smaller signing tables over the other side of the street. The NZ drivers were a little bit difficult to organise, but once we'd got the the PWRC, who had someone in charge of them, everything flowed nicely. The WRC team PR have everything sorted, having done it in many countries before.
That about covers the semi-short version of the last couple of days! I stayed and watched the ceremonial start inc. speeches and Maori welcome with Chris Atkinson, but my position meant that photos weren't that easy to get.
... Tomorrow = When the real work and excitement starts! Enjoy the photos.
Key: First 8 pictures from end time control on Shakedown stage. (2) PG Andersson (3) Damage on Atko's car (5) Henning (6) Shakedown time board (7) Rautenbach (8) Sordo (9) Pre-event Press Conference (10) Driver's signing WRC (11) Henning - Start (12) Privateer Conrad Rautenbach in the service park.
In the afternoon I headed out to the Creek. Had my photo taken for the Waikato Times, which in the process enabled me to meet Tom, the Subaru publicity guy. It was cool to talk Subaru's for a while and the finer details such as pink/red STi stickers and small dents in Atko's back bumper.
Got to interview Morrie Chandler later on, was interesting and very diplomatic... I'm still not really sure what to think about it all. But it will be good for future analysis, as I recorded theinterview. So I will come back to it.
Wednesday afternoon after the interview with Morrie was kind of interesting. Went with Geoff Ridder to the Ford Team drinks mixer thing. It's basically a chance for the team to show off their drivers to the media, serve wine and nibbles and get everyone hobb-knobbing. Felt very chicken kiwi like, us kiwis seemingly grouping together for comfort. Alan McDonald, with whom I am traveling to Malaysia in a month and a bit, launched on me the idea of a lead up article on what the kiwi teams are doing in preparation to going over to Singapore and so I was introduced to the Malleys. Headed home and decided to make it an early night, was shocked to have Mikko text me, pretty much telling me off for not chatting to him!
Thursday started with Shakedown, I got out to the Creek at about 8am and then made my way over to the end of the Shakedown stage to take some photos and see what was all going on. We literally had one of the best days for weather that the Waikato has seen in at least a couple of months. This was great for photos. I caught up with Jason (other kiwi from rallystuff.net site) and walked around the service park.
Also caught up with Mikko finally, strange thing really, to know him and yet... It was weird to have him come over and talk to me and have people take photos. But, we escaped into the Ford tent and had a bit of a catch-up, me feeling like a bit of a possum caught in the lights and being distracted by everything going on around at the same time. One of the things that we talked about was football, funnily enough, along with other generic catch-up talk. Jason snapped a couple of shots of Mikko and I chatting.
Afternoon started off with a mixer thing at Suzuki WRT, much like the Ford one, just less swankier (sorry Suzuki!), it was based in the service park, so swankiness is automatically limited really. Then the pre-event press conference, which was a bit of a non-event for me this year because the rally decided to buy, yes buy, the services of a transcriber. Whereas last year I was involved in the transcription, but, as it turns out it was okay because Kim and I had to make our way into town for the driver's signing session and the ceremonial start.
Driver's signing was an awesome different experience. I found myself somewhat in charge of the biggest part of it. The teams were split into three places on both sides of Hood Street, I had the big one outside Cullens and there were two more smaller signing tables over the other side of the street. The NZ drivers were a little bit difficult to organise, but once we'd got the the PWRC, who had someone in charge of them, everything flowed nicely. The WRC team PR have everything sorted, having done it in many countries before.
That about covers the semi-short version of the last couple of days! I stayed and watched the ceremonial start inc. speeches and Maori welcome with Chris Atkinson, but my position meant that photos weren't that easy to get.
... Tomorrow = When the real work and excitement starts! Enjoy the photos.
Key: First 8 pictures from end time control on Shakedown stage. (2) PG Andersson (3) Damage on Atko's car (5) Henning (6) Shakedown time board (7) Rautenbach (8) Sordo (9) Pre-event Press Conference (10) Driver's signing WRC (11) Henning - Start (12) Privateer Conrad Rautenbach in the service park.
EDIT: Also caught up with our young kiwi hope, 21 year old Hayden Paddon, in the service park during the day. Good to just check in and see where he was at and mention things about Rally Malaysia.
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